Source: Zain competitor steals, implements idea

Professor Lungwanhwa at the launch of the current Zain Zambia HQ in Lusaka

A named competitor to Zain Zambia has allegedly stolen a service idea while Zain Zambia was still dilly dallying launching it.

Sources have told the Watchdog that Zain Zambia was supposed to launch a product to succeed the shelved Loyalty programme a week ago but was forced to abandon it when the competitor started advertising a similar service.

Zain was scheduled to launch the new product at Pamodzi hotel last Friday and invitation letters were delivered to various organisations including the Watchdog.

The cancellation of the launch was made just a few hours before the time set. No reasons were given except that the invitation cards remain valid.

Loyalty service was an initiative where Zain customers would receive a monthly bonus of talk time depending on the amount of talk time used in the previous month.

Zain decided to end this service at the end of September with the view of replacing it with a more innovative and attractive service.

But that was not to be. The Zain competitor got the idea and without officially launching it, started advertising and implementing it.

Zain has not even announced the new date for the launch. Sources say this is not the first time Zain experienced this ‘theft”.

They revealed that there are currently four services and projects on hold as the company is trying to get to the root cause of the information leakage.

The sources explained that the ‘thieving’ competitor has employed a good number of former Zain technical employees by offering them twice the amount of peanuts Zain was paying them.

These technical persons, according to sources, were trained at great cost to Zain and know the inside of Zain.

“These guys still have friends at Zain so it easier for them to interact,” said one source.